Parents' Guide to

The Last Tycoon

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Period Hollywood drama is all style, not much fun.

TV Amazon Prime Video Drama 2017
The Last Tycoon Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

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age 18+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Meredith95
Meredith95 Adult
October 5, 2018
age 18+

Good Acting and Beautiful Sets

So I got one episode in, and I was very disappointed. I love a lot of the actors and actresses in this tv show, and that was my main reason for checking it out. Although the concept was interesting, the sets lovely, and costumes fantastic, The Last Tycoon started off on a rough note. It threw marriage/family values out the window within the first episode. The main actor tragically looses his wife, and is only two years out from her death, and women are seen parading themselves about for him (one in lingerie that barely covers her private areas) trying to impress him. There is a suicide, and two young children are exposed to a couple having oral sex in a empty theater as they find shelter from a storm (the couple is clothed but it is obvious what is going on). Besides those negative features, there is language used throughout, and the married couple - featured as main characters- are both having trists with younger people who work with them or who are good friends with their family (they have a daughter who is in their care still). Even with the beauty and intrigue presented within the first episode, it could not make up for the loose values presented throughout. I don't intend to watch any more episodes.

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much swearing
michael G.
michael G. Adult
August 20, 2017
age 18+

Good (not great) until the 4th episode

So disappointed by all the other Amazon shows full of gratuitous sex and nudity so it was nice to find this show UNTIL we got to the forth episode. There were two scenes with multiple full frontal nudity which caught us completely off guard. So disappointed! Up to that point it was like described here (pretty mild with one F word or so every episode). Stopped watching after that. Families be warned.

This title has:

Too much sex
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Based on the unfinished F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, THE LAST TYCOON is set in 1930s Hollywood, where studio exec Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) is locked in a power struggle with studio head Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer). While Pat wants to make movies that grab the greatest number of American eyeballs, the tortured, damaged Monroe is reaching for art. But he's not having an easy time of it with an ominous official from Nazi Germany hanging around, demanding the studio make concessions. For his part, Pat is having a crisis of conscience over the Depression-era shantytown that's sprung up next to his studio, where he finds and hires Okie striver Max Miner (Mark O'Brien) as his new heavy. He's also worried about his daughter Celia (Lily Collins), who wants to marry Monroe -- but that might prove complicated, since Monroe has designs of his own on Pat's wife Rose (Rosemarie DeWitt).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (1 ):

The names in the credits say "quality drama," but this adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's final, unfinished novel is old-fashioned, not classic. Monroe sails through the office like a lesser Don Draper, barking out orders to secretaries and scriptwriters as women giggle and gawk in his wake. Everyone, it seems, can't stop talking about Monroe Stahr, something another character literally says at one point. Except he's not that fascinating to the viewer. So it quickly grows irritating hearing how brilliant and magnetic and heroic he is, despite a scene designed to show us he's fragile, too: "He has a congenital defect in his aorta," says Pat. "One day his heart's literally going to explode." Do we hear a clumsy metaphor?

It's always fun seeing elegant parties, women in satin, live jazz bands, and vintage Hollywood back lots with costumed extras. But The Last Tycoon is no Great Gatsby, not even close. The characters, too thinly drawn, don't land; they come off as props making speeches about Hollywood's many sins (Fitzgerald was a frustrated screenwriter, after all). One final, nitpicky detail: In a movie set in the 1930s, the women are styled in a very modern way. Lily Collins' full brows would have looked mighty odd in an era when thin, plucked arches (think Greta Garbo) were all the rage; other characters wear similarly period-incorrect shades and styles. It's the kind of small detail that a show like Mad Men always got right, and clumsier dramas don't. Maybe that's why Don Draper is an original, and Monroe Stahr, despite being written decades earlier, comes off like a poor imitation.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why dramas about Hollywood and movie-making are so common. What others besides The Last Tycoon can you name? Why do writers like Hollywood as a setting? What dramatic possibilities does it offer?

  • Which aspects of the show's period time setting seem modern and which seem old-fashioned? Consider dialogue, costumes, language, and settings. Were you surprised by anything that appears in the time period of this series?

  • How does the show portray drinking? Is it glamorized? Are there realistic consequences? What mistakes do characters make while they are drinking?

TV Details

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